“Almost all the citizens from Meedhoo joined the march, which went on from 4:30 pm to 6 pm. We received over 600 signatures for the petition,” Abdulla Shiham, a cousin of the victim who was involved in organising the event, told the Maldives Independent.

Mohamed Anas, 25, was reportedly stabbed 37 times by a group of masked men in a motorcycle service centre in the capital. He died while undergoing treatment at the nearby ADK hospital.

“We would like this to be the beginning of a series of calls for justice and a halt to violence. Signing is still going on and a similar activity is to be carried out in neighbouring island Maduvvari this evening and we are getting ready to join them,” Shiham said.

President Abdulla Yameen meanwhile declared in a speech Thursday night that Anas was killed by in a case of mistaken identity.

“He wasn’t the one at fault. It was the t-shirt he was wearing,” Yameen said at the opening of a park in Hulhumalé,

“His soul was snatched from his body because there was another boy wearing the same T-shirt and he was thought to be that boy.”